MiG-21 UMD 1:72

**Siwi** · #1 06-02-2022, 02:43 AM

Yesterday I completed a build of a very nice little kit designed by 'Miku-chan' and free from his website of the Tokyo Solid Model Club. This is his Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 UMD, which is the modernised training version, and in a special paint scheme of the air force of Croatia. Seeing as Croatia has what I think is the best football kit in the world, I couldn't resist building this model which has the same design of red and white checks!

I like the more streamlined nose and smaller shock cone of this version (I think it's based on the MiG-21F) over the later versions which appear rather heavy and less elegant. Needless to say, this was an excellently designed kit, which makes it almost impossible to get the placement of the stabilisers and the wing anhedral incorrect. I did depart from the online instructions somewhat, because I could see it would be easier to insert the vertical and horizontal stabilisers before the fuselage halves were glued 'shut'. The only minor issues with building it were the somewhat vague pictures of the landing gear and the placement of the many small fuselage 'bumps' to add extra detail. A few of them I left off entirely as I couldn't see where they are supposed to go, but they are optional anyway (I didn't even attempt some truly miniscule fins on the famous 'lance'). I added the belly fuel tank (Tintin rocket?) but decided it looked better without missiles on the underwing hardpoints. Cocktail sticks were a perfect fit for the rounded nacelles at the tips.

As usual I opened the canopy and scratchbuilt a simple cockpit with panels and ejection seats. It's not super accurate but probably no worse than the ones supplied in an Airfix plastic kit I would have made when younger...